"It never rains in Southern California", according to the song. However, after 3 years of drought, nature picked our harvest date to unleash some thunder and rain on the picking crew that started 3 am. No choice but to abandon the harvest halfway.Grapes look great, typical for the Temecula warm climate terroir. Brix 25, or 25% sugar level measured in the grape juice, means that this wine will get high in alcohol. However, we got a nice acidity level of 6.5 grams/liter, enough to make it far from a flat wine. Hot climate wines often suffer from lack of acidity, and need some acid addition to improve taste. No additions needed with our grapes.As the picture of the gape bunch shows, there was some grape dehydration, concentrating juices even more. In short, the grapes were well ripe and show all the right values to make a great dense Cabernet.The morning after the crush, the grape juice already took some light color from the skins, showing a little blush. This week, during fermentation, color extraction continues and the juice will transform into red wine. Easy to understand that our forefathers thought of this as a kind of miracle, celebrated as a holy day on Saint Martin's Day, November 11.Given the 2 weeks earlier harvest this year, we'll celebrate Crush a little sooner than the old folks in Europe.